[rannai water heater]

screwfix hear i come again

I think you can rent bigger size hole cutters.

[water filter]

I have been doing this for over 4 years now.

 

I bought the smallest swimming pool water pump and associated sand filter I could find. These I got from Dryden Aqua - I think it's in Scotland. The water pump was mounted on the swim in the engine hole. This helps to avoid floaters - leaves, plastic bags etc - and is a good distance off the bottom, so avoids loads of silt. The sand filter is 18" diameter by about 24" high and takes 75 kg of sand. I.E. 25 kg of pebbles in the bottom and 50 kg of fine sand. I believe you can now get "AFM" or Artificial Filter Media, which has much better filtering qualities, but I just use ordinary sand. The filter is back-washable, so you don't have to be replacing the sand regularly. I also devised a smal electronic switching circuit to automatically re-fill the tank when it get's low. I began using this in July 2004 and so far have not changed the sand, or ever had the inlet blocked by debri. The inlet pipe is mounted on the swim with a fair height of 3" pipe and a t-piece to the self-priming pump. The top of the pipe is closed off with an end cap, so the pump can create suction, but if the pipe got clogged, you can remove the end cap and shove out the blockage with a rod.

 

I use this water for all my washing/bathing, and then use a standard house-hould, 5 - stage R.O. unit for the drinking water. The washing water can be a bit brown in the bath due to high Iodine, particularly while I was on the Union Canal, Scotland, but is fine here in London. There is no silt or grit at all in the water. I don't use any chemical anti-bacterial stuff at all, since the washing machine and dishwasher tablets have this in them, and the calorifier should take care of most of the nasties when heating the wqater. I don't have any smell either, which was a bit surprising.

 

In 2004, the whole lot cost under £400.00, including the R.O. unit, which was also supplied by Dryden Aqua.

 

Please let me know if you want further info and I will gladly post it here.

 

Mitch.

This is good info Mitch. Dove, my 52' cruiser stern narrowboat, lays on the north Hollands canal in Amsterdam, The Netherlands during the summer season. The water looks a bit green but in the summer most people, including myself, just dive in the canal for a wash. No ones showing ill effects yet, but it's hardly ideal!

 

I go to marinas to fill up the 800Lt water tank once in a while, but that's a three hour job with the lock in the way. I'd prefer to filter canal water for washing/drinking, possibly with two levels of filtration: a swimming pool filter (what sort of media to use?) for normal washing, backed up buy a cartridge filter/s for drinking water.

 

I'd then install an LPG instant hot water boiler fitted with a flame failure device having no pilot light plus a closed room flue (safe). I could then ditch the calorifier and just keep a small water tank for emergencies (a floater drifts by!) I'd then have extra storage where the water tank was, and I'd stick the filters and LPG heater where the calorifier is. I'm now looking at high flow filters which will be a bit more expensive I expect.

[Filtered canal water to potable]

Dove, my 52' cruiser stern narrowboat, lays on the north Hollands canal in Amsterdam, The Netherlands during the summer season. The water looks a bit green but in the summer most people, including myself, just dive in the canal for a wash. No ones showing ill effects yet, but it's hardly ideal!

 

I go to marinas to fill up the 800Lt water tank once in a while, but that's a three hour job. I'd prefer to filter canal water for washing/drinking, possibly with two levels of filtration: a swimming pool filter (what sort of media to use?) for normal washing, backed up buy a cartridge filter/s for drinking water.

 

I'd then install an LPG instant hot water boiler fitted with a flame failure device having no pilot light plus a closed room flue (safe). You could then ditch the calorifier and just keep a small water tank for emergencies (a floater drifts by!) I'd then have extra storage where the water tank was, and I'd stick the filters and LPG heater where the calorifier was.

 

Has anyone navigated the possibilities of such a system and it practicability.

 

Thanks in advance

Des